South Africa took full advantage of two weather interruptions to beat India by five wickets on the Duckworth-Lewis method at the Wanderers Stadium on Saturday to keep alive their hopes of sharing the One Day International (ODI) series.
India now lead the series 3-1 with the remaining matches to be played at St.George’s Park on Tuesday and at SuperSport Park on Friday.
In the process, the packed Wanderers crowd saluted two new heroes in Heinrich Klaasen and Andile Phehlukwayo who have played a combined total of just 25 ODIs. The pair secured the victory after the Proteas were set a revised target of 202 in 28.4 overs with Klaasen making an unbeaten 43 off 27 balls (5 fours and a six) and Phehlukwayo an almost unbelievable 23 off five balls (a four, three sixes and a single).
Their partnership realised 33 runs from 11 legal deliveries.
It followed a partnership of 72 in one ball short of seven overs for the fifth wicket between Klaasen and David Miller (39 off 28 balls, four fours and two sixes). In the process they put the feared Indian spinners to the sword as the two went for 119 runs in 11.3 overs although they took three wickets between them and it turned what looked like being a very tight finish into a relatively comfortably victory that was achieved with 15 balls to spare.
The onslaught was started and probably inspired by AB de Villiers when he hit two sixes in an over.
The Proteas had two good breaks from the weather interruptions. The first came when India, having won the toss, were in complete control, reaching 200/2 in 34.2 overs.
The Proteas grabbed two wickets immediately the game resumed including the key one of Shikhar Dhawan who celebrated his 100th ODI with his 13th ODI century (109 off 105 balls, 10 fours and two sixes).
The Proteas then produced a fine bowling performance in the final power play between the 40th and 50th overs that saw just 59 runs conceded.
As a result the initial target was 290.
The second break came when the Proteas had reached 43 for the loss of Aiden Markram’s wicket in 7.2 overs.
The revised target meant that the Proteas needed a further 159 off 20.4 overs which required a switch to T20 mode and a required run rate of eight to the over for a short period of time rather than almost six to the over for a full 50 overs.
The key thing for the Proteas was that they managed to put pressure on India for the first time in the series rather than having to soak up all the pressure themselves and that led to inevitable mistakes, none being the more important than the reprieve Miller earned when Yuzvendra Chahal bowled him with a no ball. - African News Agency (ANA)
